Chapter Text
All for One is not a betting man. When people hear him talk about his intentions, they wrongfully assume he is taking a risk, but in reality, he is a man who makes sure that he cannot lose. If one plan doesn’t work out he would simply shift his focus onto one of his other ideas he already set up. Life is built on choices, so All for One makes sure to control the choices people make to get the best result for himself. He has always done that and always will.
Unfortunately, sometimes for the man these avenues sometimes take a long time to become realized. But All for One is patient. He is a man who has been alive for about 200 hundred years, so he learned the value of not rushing into things. Still, he can’t help but become frustrated when they start to hit a few roadblocks.
One of the biggest issues they are developing is the new nomu. Something the doctor has been cultivating for years. Slowly. Currently, they are going over new ways to implant quirks into the bodies, trying to make them stable enough to not diminish immediately has been taxing.
The warehouse is quiet as the two men look over the failed experiments they did in the past. Papers from the medical reports are scattered across the table. No progress has been made tonight much to their annoyance. All for One looks over another copy of the autopsy as they try to figure out just what adjustments need to be made to start the next line of trials.
Unfortunately the late hour is getting to the doctor, he would need to rest soon. He leans away from his messy desk, and looks over at his colleague. They both haven’t spoken in a while, just quietly thinking. The nomu project is taking too long, they are supposed to be moving onto more idealized forms already.
Quirks really are finicky things, and with so much red tape from the government, there isn’t much they can outsource. More laws regarding quirk experimentations mean every year there is less and less research being done outside of the doctor’s own. It's frustrating to see quirk science come to a standstill when there are so many things to be explored. Science is supposed to be messy and ground breaking, all these rules halt discovery.
The doctor shakes his head and he pulls out another folder, a different project. It isn’t just the nomu designs that are on the doctor’s mind. No, a good scientist likes to explore more possibilities, and he has set up another project recently. Just like All for One, the man likes to explore more than one option, see more than one experiment to fruition. Brilliant minds never stop exploring new possibilities.
The doctor decides it is time to bring up this latest project proposal to All for One.
“Remember when we discussed creating an ultimate healing quirk?” the doctor says carefully.
All for one looks up from his documents, eyes narrowing at the doctor.
“I remember us talking about how that research was mostly theoretical and unlikely to yield physical results.”
“Yes, but I have been going through some of the quirk factor studies that have been published over recent years. With some of this new data, I think I might have a trial of sorts I would like to try.”
“Oh?” All for One leans forward, clearly interested in what the man is saying, “And what makes this trial different from the many unsuccessful ones we have seen before.”
“I want the quirk to grow naturally in a child.”
All for One pauses at this. “Doctor, I already have specific plans for Tomura, I do not want to add an experimental child into my plans.”
The doctor shakes his head, “No, that isn’t what I am proposing.”
“Go on.”
The doctor could tell All for One is getting impatient, so he explains:
“I want to slowly introduce these modified quirk factors in a blank slate base like graft. That way the development will be controlled- well, as much you can with it being experimental genetic manipulation. Even with it being experimental I believe this will have the best outcome of a strong healing quirk. All the previous experiments I have tried the quirk factors were introduced too fast, leading to failures. Of course, it likely will take years to come to strength because of this method, but we haven’t had any luck with anything else so far. We both know healing and regeneration quirks are quite rare and it doesn’t help most governments blacklist any information on them so we have been unsuccessful in being able to steal one as well. This may be our one way of getting our hands one.”
“True. What do you mean by blank slate?” All for One asks, though the man suspects he knows the answer.
“A recently diagnosed quirkless child. One that will be susceptible to a quirk at that age and will grow with the quirk.” the doctor confirms.
Ah, so he is right. All for One hums, thinking out the possibilities. He’s grown so used to only interacting with people's quirks he’s forgotten how the opposite might be useful as well.
“So, you inject these isolated quirk strains into the child and then hope that their empty quirk factor will take it in as their own, creating the precise quirk we want? There are many if’s in this. A lot could go wrong.”
“Science is all about trials and experimentations. This might just be the first step into long scientific study.”
“True. I would like to see you try it then. But, still, I would like you to focus your work on creating the nomu, since this will likely not be successful for a long time, if ever. It is good to have many goals, but this one should not be our focus. I look forward to seeing the results. We could create other combinations if needed if this child holds up well.”
The doctor shifts in his chair and pulls out another file he had in his desk. “I don’t plan on wasting any time, I already laid down the groundwork. The child is to stay with their mother, both of them are unaware of what I will be doing. I plan to keep the child in the dark for as long as possible, by faking doctor appointments for the boy. If there are signs of the quirk factors bonding correctly, just to keep them compliant I will play it off, insisting the boy is quirkless. Until the true power of the quirk awakens he will have no idea. That way, there won’t be any unnecessary wasted time on a failed experiment, if it ends up heading that direction.”
“So you already found a child to be the subject of this trial?” All for One questions.
The doctor nods at the man in front of him and opens up the folder he pulled up. A simple medical file, there’s a picture of a young boy with green hair and freckles dusted across his cheeks.
“He was the one I got the idea from. When the mother brought him in for an appointment over concerns of not having his quirk manifest at his age, I realized how useful his make up could be. That boy is 100% quirkless. When looking at his results it made me realize how many possibilities you have when there is nothing you have to work around.”
“Interesting to see as well. Quirklessness in the younger generations is rare to see now.”
“If the government quirk records are to be believed, it seems only one in a thousand kids are diagnosed as quirkless in Japan nowadays. Quite shocking to have one fall into my care at the pediatrician office I work at for my nephew.”
“Well hopefully, this will lead to interesting results, even if we don’t get the healing quirk, the boy may be useful as a nomu sample later.”
The doctor nodded, “We will see.”
The doctor looked down at the file again, looking forward to seeing just what he could accomplish. Hopefully this four year old boy named Midoriya Izuku would be of some use.